When I decided to write a series of futuristic fairy tale retellings, I was determined to write a series of books that were entirely unique, despite their fairy tale ties. After all, these stories (and Cinderella in particular) have been told and retold a million different times in a million different ways, and while I adore many retellings and rags-to-riches tales, I didn't want my book to become "just another Cinderella story."

So it became a challenge to figure out where the boundaries of the Cinderella story were, and how far I could bend and twist them, while still maintaining that air of familiarity that I love about retellings. I wanted readers to have the sense that this was still the fairy tale from their childhood, just not quite how they'd read it before.

I began by re-reading the most well-known versions of the tale - Grimm and Perrault - and also revisiting some popular retellings, such as ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine. From that, I began to pick out the elements that, to me, make up the most iconic moments of the Cinderella story:

- Cinderella as a lowly servant or in a low social class
- The Prince
- The Wicked Stepmother
- The Ball and the means by which Cinderella gets to it (help from a fairy godmother or kindly spirit, the pumpkin carriage)
- The Slipper

Once I knew which elements seemed necessary to me to keep that Cinderella feel, I was able to let the story grow and expand, through new plot twists, unexpected characters, and futuristic world-building. Soon I had a heroine who was part-machine, a plague ravishing Earth, and a society of cruel mind-controlling semi-humans from the moon who were plotting war against Earth, and I went with it, so long as I still maintained the framework of those original elements.

I also had a lot of fun taking those elements and working them into the context of my futuristic world. Cinder's low social standing is a direct result of her cybernetic make-up. The ball is an annual event that celebrates 126 years of world peace following the Fourth World War. The slipper is represented by (what else?) a too-small cyborg foot.

I've had readers describe CINDER like a scavenger hunt, in which they would forget they were reading a retelling at all until they stumbled across one of these iconic elements that harked back to its fairy-tale roots. I love this analogy, because it perfectly captures what I was aiming for when I wrote it. I'm attempting to keep that same combination of new-meets-familiar throughout The Lunar Chronicles, which will also be retelling Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White. I hope the sensation of a fairy-tale scavenger hunt continues, and that readers have as much fun hunting down these iconic elements - some more subtle than others - as I've had writing them in.

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

16 comments
:

Thanks so much for posting this! I have read both Cinder and Scarlet, and loved them both! I had worried because I liked Cinder so much, and have been so disappointed in the past with subsequent volumes to series, but she does a great job with Scarlet! Can't wait for the rest of them!

Well, you already know how much I love CINDER and SCARLET and the reason I love them so much is exactly what Meyer is describing -- they're familiar fairy tales, yes, but told in an original, NOT predictable fashion. The elements are there, but they come as SURPRISES. I love that. It's a great series!

Oh! I forgot to say that I'm giving away a copy of CINDER right now on my blog. If you haven't started the series, or just want a copy of your own, stop by and enter: http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/2013/01/my-lunar-chronicles-extravaganza-with.html